Jean Barton: Response to claims about cattle and greenhouse gases

Trent Loos is a 6th generation rancher that travels the country to promote the people in agriculture through his public speaking and radio programs.

He writes columns for several publications and his work may be found at www.LoosTales.com. "Eat a ribeye and improve planet health" or "Cattle are the solution, not the problem" I found on loostales.blogspot.com/2014/07. This is in response to last week's big headlines in the media about beef and greenhouse gases.

"Attacking the cow as the primary contributor to climate change is just another way to divert attention from the real problem. Ruminant grazing animals actually improve planet health by consuming cellulose material which improves the plant's absorption of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and reduces fuel for wild fires.

"The number of wild fires in the western half of the United States has been trending upward significantly since 2000, paralleling the reduction of grazing animals in that area. Uncle Sam, the nation's largest land owner with 33% of the total land mass is only grazing animals at 20% of the capacity, creating the perfect scenario for more extreme fires.

"Scientific estimates suggest that wild fires account for 6% of the GHGs produced in the U.S. Scientists have long labored to quantitatively assess the effect of wildfire soot particles on climate change, with wildfires responsible for 34% of the global soot mass in the atmosphere.

"Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, found that grassland produced more nitrous oxide during the spring thaw when sheep or cattle had not been grazing. This is because greenhouse gas is released by microbes in the soil. When the grass is long snow settles to keep the microbes warm and provide water. When the grass is cut short by animals, the ground freezes and the microbes die.

"Dr. Frank Mitloehner is the global expert on greenhouse gas emissions. He tells us that in the United States, 6% of all GHGs are emitted from agriculture. Of that, 3.4% are from livestock agriculture while it is believed that roughly 1.4 % is from beef production. Mitloehner has made the case that if Meatless Monday were to be mandated for all 314 million Americans, the reduction of GHGs would be only 0.2%.

"The Mas Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg discovered that methane is produced by growing plants and the greenhouse effect of methane is 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide.

"Rice production accounts for around 20% of human — related methane emissions and food waste contributes one-third of a GHGs in the nation.

"Within the United States, the building sector accounts for approximately 48% of annual GHG emissions, with 36% of the direct energy related GHG emissions and an additional 8-12% of total GHG emissions related to the production of materials used in building construction.

"So in conclusion while cows do indeed produce a moderate level of GHGs, let's not forget that all living things do. If you are not producing GHGs you are not living and for all of us to live better, we need proper management of all our resources and not a target on cattle as the sole source of the problem when they indeed may be the solution."

Battle Mountain

BATTLE MOUNTAIN &GT;&GT; Once again ranchers who run cattle on the Argenta Allotment in Lander County were told Wednesday that due to drought a number of areas would be closed to livestock.

Pete and Lynn Tomera were told by the Bureau of Land Management they had a week to remove cattle from nine segments of the allotment — Mill Creek, North Fork, Indian Creek, Trout Creek, Sansinena, Slaven, Maysville North, Maysville South and Corral Canyon use areas — because those areas had exceeded drought response triggers.

In an email sent to a number of ranch advocates, including Elko County Commission Grant Gerber and former assemblyman John Carpenter, the Tomeras said they were contacted Tuesday and handed a packet of monitoring data that prompted the decision.

"We have 7 days to ride the entire mountain and have the cattle off. We are right in the middle of haying and are forced to drop everything and begin gathering cattle," the Tomeras wrote. "We are forced to put the cattle in areas that have much less forage than the mountain where they are now. Much of their monitoring reflects only a small portion of the area yet this is what they use to determine the health of the entire area."

The Tomeras, who had hired a range consultant for monitoring, disputed the need to remove cattle. The entire allotment, he noted, is about 56 percent privately owned.

"I never dreamed we could have so much trouble," Pete Tomera told the Free Press. "I've had countless other ranchers say 'I wish I had feed like that' or 'I wish I had water like that.'"

Rudy Evenson, BLM state office deputy chief of communications, said the permittees and the agency had previously entered into an agreement that cattle would be moved once the forage fell below an agreed upon threshold.

Of the 20 areas in the Argenta Allotment, Evenson added, 11 have not been closed.

"The ranchers on their general allotments are not being asked to do something different," he said. Ranchers are routinely asked, he explained, to actively manage their herds and move the cattle from one area that has been grazed to another pasture.

Evenson said the letters that informed ranchers of the closures were reviewed and approved by the state and federal BLM offices.

According to the Tomeras, their range consultant was denied access to the agency's monitoring data. The ranchers also worry that the decision to close nine areas of the allotment would in effect close many more because of a lack of fencing.

Their livelihood is in jeopardy, they've argued.

"It's sad that this is what we're dealing with," said Shawn Mariluch, who also runs cattle on areas of the allotment.

In May, the BLM first informed permittees grazing closures would be in effect on the Argenta Allotment.

Gerber that month spearheaded a protest, dubbed "the Grass March," in which he and other horse riders carried from Elko to Carson City petitions calling for the ouster of BLM Battle Mountain District Manager Doug Furtado.

Ranchers also offered tours of the range to showcase the plants.

As the movement gained widespread attention, an agreement was reached and the ranchers were told they could turn out their cattle.

The county commissioner traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. He is slated to testify 11 a.m. today at a Congressional sub-committee hearing on public land and environmental regulations.

The topic of the meeting is "Threats, intimidation and bullying by federal managing agencies."

"It's bad and getting worse," Gerber said. "It's a terrible thing."

Jean Barton has been writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@gmail.com.